Court Blocks Funds for Stem Cell Research

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ruled today that the Obama administration's plan to provide federal funds for research using embryonic stem cells violated a federal law that bars the use of government money to destroy human embryos.

U.S. district Judge Royce Lamberth granted an injunction to block the flow of National Institutes of Health research monies, ruling that a suit brought by researchers opposed to embryonic research had merit.

The researchers contend that the administration's heralded stem cell research program did involve the destruction of human embryos. Lamberth's ruling allows the case to go forward.

The administration must now decide whether it will fight the injunction, proceed to trial, or rewrite the guidelines in a way that would pass muster with the court.

The suit, which was reportedly backed by some Christian groups, argued that the Obama policy also shifted funds from researchers working with adult stem cells.

Science "is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda -- and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology," Obama said.

Lamberth is a well-known jurist who made headlines during the Clinton administration when he ruled that the deliberations of the healthcare reform group assembled by then First Lady Hillary Clinton were not protected by executive privilege.

In another well-publicized case involving Native Americans, Lamberth characterized the actions of the U.S. Interior Department as racist, a remark that eventually resulted in his removal from the case.

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